Jack
Cameron

Born and raised in a small town just outside of Philadelphia, PA, I am a proud Bucks County kid. Our county has its fair share of notable athletes and celebrities, as well as being a battleground county during every Election season (oh joy). I always look forward to coming back 'Home', mostly attributed to seeing my extended family. If you ever get the wildly unlikely chance to drive through Bucks County, I recommend Upper Bucks to see New Hope or Peddlar's Village. Or you can also visit the largest mall by retail space in the country, King of Prussia Mall.

I went to public school like most kids in my neighborhood. The Philadelphia-area has some old, prestigious prep schools, Catholic schools, and boarding schools in the country. My family couldn't afford those, and even if we did, me and my sisters would never go. Public school was as you'd expect it. A good education for a good price with some crazy stories every now and then. A few bomb threats here and there, a ton of snow days, and gossip that you could only find in the movies like Mean Girls. I played sports ever since I could walk. Baseball, baseball, baseball. I was good at it, but there is no Cy Young to being the best pitcher in the league at 9 years old. My shoulder injuries ruined my career through high school before I could even play in college. So I picked up golf, and I can't complain. Football, basketball, and soccer were all fun, but I will gladly take golf over all of them at this point in my life.

My hard-work in school paid off with my admission into the Georgia Institute of Technology. After a stressful 4.5 years of difficult school work, I graduated with my Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. And yes up to this point, you're probably thinking how does anything on my website relate to an Engineering degree? It doesn't, sadly. But it wasn't for nothing. I had a wonderful time at college and made some lifelong friends and brothers at my fraternity, Tau Kappa Epsilon. For the record, I will say my degree has helped me land a number of terrific opportunities to work at Fortune 500 companies within corporate America. And from it, I have learned how much I hate corporate America. Upon graduation, I formed a start-up with some college friends and we worked on it part-time for 2 years earning a handsome amount of pocket-change and some really valuable all-around business experience. Straight out of college, I became a Consultant for IBM. After 2 years, I had to get out. The only good thing about my job, besides the pay, was that it brought me to Boston.

Boston is my favorite city in the United States. It has been my favorite city, even as a kid from the Philadelphia suburbs. My theoryis that I was subliminally coerced into loving the city. Growing up, I had a speech impediment that made it hard to pronounce my R's: instead of 'shirt' I would say 'showt' or 'cah' rather than 'car'. Strangers, neighbors, and family friends would constantly tell me and my mom, "your little boy is from boston." And that completes my theory. Flash forward to today, I shipped up to Boston. This city has been an absolute delight. I've met phenomenal people and made incredible memories. At the time of writing this, I do not know if I will still be living in Boston by the end of the year. Until then, I will cherish every moment I have in this great city.

Finally, I have to mention my worldly excursions. In college, I got the priceless (actually it had a price and it was expensive) opportunity to study abroad in France for a semester. Over there, I got to see most of the countries in mainland Europe. As for family vacations, I can add to my tally saying I've been to the UK, Canada, and Scotland. In the United States, I have visited pretty much every State on the East Coast and Midwest. I'm well traveled in the West Coast but I still have places to see along Mountain West, South, and the middle of the country no one talks about (it's a joke).

Saving the best for last. My family keeps me grounded. Without them, I wouldn't have the dreams to 'turn my hobbies into a profession' or travel the world and go to school down South. Everything I have in life, I owe to my family and more specifically my parents. They both stayed close to home growing up in respective counties bordering my hometown Bucks County. My Dad worked a long, respectable tenure putting aside his life passions to put food on the table for his greatest, most selfless passion in life, his family. My Mom worked the hardest, thankless job any woman could have, being a stay-at-home-mother. My two older sisters and I always made sure give her out thanks for being the best Mom in the World. She eventually went back to work before I graduated high school, but now both of them are happily retired and spending time with their grandchildren. My oldest sister, at the time of writing this, has 2 daughters and lives in Hawaii. My other older sister lives as close to her as possible in the state of California. Our family dynamics are strikingly similar to the Modern Family family of Phil and Claire. Being the award-winning show that it is, I am sure many families can relate to Phil, Claire, Haley, Alex, and Luke. That's good writing.

I am very close with my cousins as I was very close with my grandparents. My Nana is the only living grandparent I have, and I make sure to call her every week and visit her once a year in the incredibly warm, popular retirement state of... Wisconsin. Overall I have 11 first cousins, 17 if you include step-cousins, and when you get down to second cousins, the number is north of 20. And the craziest thing of all, out of the 50 some combined number of Aunts, Uncles, and cousins, we see all of them at least every 2 years or shorter. We live close to many of them, but a good number are scattered around the country and even the world.

Above all, I am proud to have my extended family. And extremely lucky too. A number of my friends cannot relate to being close with their family, so I don't take my place in the world for granted. As for my heritage, I am a mixed bag of races but to put it simply I am an Asian-American. My dog-saliva breeding test tells me I am Chinese, Irish, Scottish, German, and English. I feel like a mix between Pug and Beagle.